Author
Topic: Kitchen Window Treatments (Read 1107 times)

I am in the process of remodeling my kitchen. We're doing it on the cheap and most of it ourselves. Currently, we are trying to decide what to do about window treatments. We had cheap plastic mini blinds. They are not aesthetically pleasing, but cheap enough that we can replace them when they get too gross or broken. (Kitchen grease and dust = ew. Also, cat tries to open the blinds himself and breaks the corners.)

I have cats and I get a feeling that they'd destroy cellular shades. We went with faux wood blinds that match our woodwork. A tad pricey but they look really nice, and neither my cat nor my preschooler have broken any. (The cheaper white faux wood blinds, however, have not held up nearly as well.)

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"From a procrastination standpoint, today has been wildly successful."

I have cellular shades in the bedrooms. They are no more washable than any other fabric shades. Your best bet is curtains in a washable cotton fabric that can go in with the kitchen towels. My mother used cafe curtains on adjustable rods. As a bonus, they were cheap enough that she could have two or three sets to switch according to season or whim.

Or, skip the window treatments and dare to go bare. You shouldn't be frying bacon in the nude anyway.

I had a chocolate lab whose hair went EVERYWHERE. I traded cellular shades for Roman blinds. Easy to vacuum. Our windows are long and low. I could easily pull them up and she could look out. If she nudged them they didn't bend.

Granddog is a Bernese mountain dog and he loves to look out the windows when he's visiting. It's easy to get the hair off the blinds.

Do you need window treatments for light control or privacy, or just want them for the pretty way they look?

Cellular shades aren't washable, I don't think.

How about washable cotton curtains? The cafe style, where the curtain only covers the bottom half of the window, would definitely work with a old country cottage kitchen look--they are a classic for kitchens, with or without a valance. If you use clip rings, you won't have to take the curtain rod down when you take them off for washing. You could even use pretty dish towels on clip rings for the curtains, if you like.

What about a curtain rod with a simple cotton fabric for curtains? You could pull the fabric down and wash it with your laundry, and you could even get a few different patterns so you could change your look for different seasons.

I'd recommend two curtains, each one about 2/3 the width of the whole window. That way, you can open them from the middle, but when they're closed, they don't have to stretch to cover the whole width.

If you go for fabric curtains you do have to consider that they are so easy to see through, even if they appear to be opaque. I would back them with a shade for good measure. It can be mounted to be above the valance curtain on top of the window when raised. This is what I have always done. (The valance I speak of is made from the same fabric as the curtains but is about 10 inches long and spans the top of the window and is wide enough to have a ruffled effect.)

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I've never knitted anything I could recognize when it was finished. Actually, I've never finished anything, much to my family's relief.

I have cats and I get a feeling that they'd destroy cellular shades. We went with faux wood blinds that match our woodwork. A tad pricey but they look really nice, and neither my cat nor my preschooler have broken any. (The cheaper white faux wood blinds, however, have not held up nearly as well.)

This is what we have - faux wood blinds with 2" slats. I'm sure they wipe down easily, but my kitchen window is pretty recessed so I haven't had the motivation to climb up and try. . At the top, I replaced the 18" long curtain ruffle valence in green/off-white plaid that my MIL had made years ago with one that I made to the same pattern, but in an all-white fabric. The look was fine to begin with, but the white fabric made it seem brighter and cleaner.

The blinds were a compromise -I hate mini blinds and DH doesn't care for curtains. If it were up to just me, I probably would have gone with sheer curtains with a cool embroidery-style pattern since that window doesn't need full privacy screening but does get afternoon sun.

We also have the white faux wood blinds in our various bedrooms and they have held up well, but so far the cats and preschooler in our house can't reach or aren't interested in messing with them. . Those were off the shelf at one of the big box hardware stores, so not too pricy. The kitchen one had to be custom ordered because of the large window size, so was more costly but worth it.

I bought a lot of vintage tablecloths in ebay when I separated from XH and wanted curtains in my new kitchen. I cut them up (most of them had bad spots in them anyway) and kind of pieced them together, cheap curtain rods, and they look great. easy peasy.